{"id":67148,"date":"2020-01-14T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T04:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67148"},"modified":"2020-01-14T23:44:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T04:44:44","slug":"we-will-not-allow-any-outside-influences-to-interfere-with-matters-that-are-essentially-internal-concerns-of-sri-lanka-declares-visiting-chinese-foreign-minister-wang-yi-in-colombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67148","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We will not allow any outside influences to interfere with matters that are essentially internal concerns of Sri Lanka&#8221; Declares Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Colombo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p>Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has pledged not to allow \u201cany outside influences\u201d to interfere with Sri Lanka\u2019s internal matters, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s office said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Sri Lanka\u2019s strategic partner China will continue to standby Sri Lanka\u2019s interests. China stands for the country\u2019s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. We will not allow any outside influences to interfere with matters that are essentially internal concerns of Sri Lanka,\u201d Mr. Wang pledged, according to a press statement issued by Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s media division. The meeting marks Beijing\u2019s first high-level engagement with the new government in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Debt concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The visit bears significance in the wake of prevalent concern over Colombo\u2019s outstanding debt to China over several largescale infrastructure projects, including the port in the southern town of Hambantota, for which China holds a 99-year lease.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the apparent concern, including from India, on Chinese involvement in the region, Mr. Rajapaksa told foreign media last month that countries such as India, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and ASEAN countries could invest in Sri Lanka. \u201cThat is how you can counter, just complaining won\u2019t do,\u201d Mr. Rajapaksa had said.<\/p>\n<p>President Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit Beijing next month, following his first state visit abroad to India late November.<\/p>\n<p>In his meeting with the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister, the President said Sri Lanka is a small country that is strategically located. \u201cAs a result, the country has to face many political challenges. The only way to overcome them is to be economically strong. The economic independence will ensure political independence,\u201d his office quoted him as telling the top Chinese official.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Wang, according to President Rajapaksa\u2019s office, assured him saying: \u201cSri Lanka may have less landmass, but will soon be strong economically. China will be with Sri Lanka in its striving to reach this goal\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton67148\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D67148&amp;text=%26%238220%3BWe%20will%20not%20allow%20any%20outside%20influences%20to%20interfere%20with%20matters%20that%20are%20essentially%20internal...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Meera Srinivasan Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has pledged not to allow \u201cany outside influences\u201d to interfere with Sri Lanka\u2019s internal matters, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s office said on Tuesday. \u201cAs Sri Lanka\u2019s strategic partner China will continue to standby Sri Lanka\u2019s interests. China stands for the country\u2019s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. We &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67148\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;&#8220;We will not allow any outside influences to interfere with matters that are essentially internal concerns of Sri Lanka&#8221; Declares Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Colombo&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67149,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67148\/revisions\/67149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}